Insurance market also in focus this week

The insurance market will feature in business headlines this week Keystone Archive

Although business news is being dominated by Swissair's parent company, the SAirGroup, there will also be strong interest in the insurance market.

Bâloise Insurance of Basel releases its annual results on Thursday and the firm is forecasting a 20 per cent increase in net profit to more than SFr620 million ($367.7 million). Most analysts expect a more modest rise in earnings of around 11 per cent.

Bâloise says its good performance is based on its successful asset management and says that higher-than-average claims from natural disasters have not had a significant impact on business.

It adds that it will continue to focus on core markets in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria.

Zurich Financial Services, the biggest single shareholder in Bâloise, will also remain in focus this week. Its share price has been hit recently after a disappointing 2000 and a profit warning for the current year, though there was a rally last week amid speculation that its chairman, Rolf Hüppi, may soon resign.

The retailer, Jelmoli, comes through with its annual figures on Tuesday. The company saw sales increase by 5.6 per cent last year to SFr954 million.

It expects net income to increase between five and 10 per cent and says that earnings per share would show a double-digit percentage increase.

The latest jobless figures are published on Friday. Most economists expect the rate to remain below two per cent even though there are signs that economic growth is slowing down.

And inflation figures to be released on Tuesday should show a year on year increase of just 0.8 per cent for March.

by Michael Hollingdale